The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
How to Think About Stock Options, Healthcare Without Insurance, and Handling Rejection
15 Dec 2025
Chapter 1: What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
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Welcome to Office Hours with Prop G. This is the part of the show where we answer your questions about business, big tech, entrepreneurship, and whatever else is on your mind. If you'd like to submit a question for next time, you can send a voice recording to officehoursofpropgmedia.com. Again, that's officehoursofpropgmedia.com.
Or post your question on the Scott Galloway subreddit, and we just might feature it in our next episode. First question.
Hey Scott, I'm graduating this upcoming May with a mechanical engineering degree. I have a few job offers lined up and I feel really fortunate given the current job market for new college grads. One opportunity I'm particularly excited about is an aerospace startup and I'm excited about it because the company is well positioned within a rapidly growing sector.
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Chapter 2: How do incentive stock options work for young professionals?
I go in and they scan the shit out of me. If I text my doctor, he texts me back within two minutes. I am getting an absolute different level of care. Most people cannot afford that. several million dollars. I would suggest that you think long and hard about going naked.
And if your employer isn't paying it for you, because health insurance, just keep in mind, you're getting 55 cents on the dollar. But I do think we are going to face this. If we look at our deficit, which is $2 trillion a year, there are 350 million Americans. We pay on average $13,000 a year for our healthcare. The rest of the G7 pay $6,500.
If you do the math, it actually adds up to $2 trillion in incremental healthcare expenditures for which we receive lower life expectancy, more obesity, more anxiety. In other words, we pay more for a shittier product. Unless again, C above, you're in the top 10 percent.
I think all roads around economic responsibility and deficit reduction lead to one place, and that is reduction and attacking the healthcare industrial complex. The way I would go about it is take Medicare eligibility down two years every year for 10 years until it got to 45, at which point basically three-quarters of medicine in the United States by expenditure level,
is socialized and I would just keep going. It is time. And if people wanna call me a communist or socialist, fine, fine. Yeah, those nations, when your wife is diagnosed in London with lung cancer, it doesn't mean you're also gonna go bankrupt, which is kind of the second thought you have after the horrific news, like, okay, we're gonna go bankrupt in America.
And obviously, if your employer offers it and you're fortunate enough to get insurance through your employer, great, go for it. Healthcare is a basic human right. You know, Bernie Sanders, whole thing. Okay, whatever. It should be. Happiness is not only a function of what you have, it's absence from things being taken from you.
And too many Americans are having their dignity taken from them because of the monetization of our healthcare system. Thanks for the question. We'll be right back after a quick break. Thank you. That's a big deal when every hire counts. With LinkedIn Jobs AI Assistant, you can skip confusing steps and recruiting jargon.
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Chapter 3: What should you consider when evaluating equity versus salary?
But anyway... I've always been able to absorb rejection from employers, universities, women, and still managed to find a way to feel good about myself and step back up to the plate. I've probably pitched... Yeah, I've raised several hundred million dollars for my companies, but I've probably pitched two or 300. And I think I've gotten, say I've pitched 300, I think I've gotten 294 no's.
So your ability, the only thing that people you admire, unless they were smart enough to be born rich, have in common is they've endured a shit ton of no's to get to great yeses. So how do you endure those no's? get used to them, a lot of approaches, send a lot of emails, try and get a lot of meetings, ask a lot. And when you get the no, realize you're gonna be fine.
I don't know what the practice is. I don't know if I played with the right toys or the wrong toys. I've always thought the best salespeople either have very high self-esteem or very low self-esteem. I don't know the psychology around your ability to mourn and move on, but I do, believe that if you never develop calluses, you can't lift heavy weights.
I would also suggest the one thing I got stuck around, I've had a lot of failure professionally, decent amount romantically, but I was always able to get past it. The only thing that I had trouble getting past was after my mom died, For about two, three years, I just didn't do much of anything. I just didn't feel much. I had trouble engaging in relationships and work.
And finally, I just started, you know what helped me? It was talking about it. I didn't do therapy, but I talked to a lot of people about grief and I became very open about it. And that helped. I still talk about it. I'm a 51-year-old man, 61, who's still not over the death of his mother, and that's okay, and I talk about it, and it helps. But I would say give yourself a statute of limitations.
All right, you lose your job. Give yourself a week to mourn and be upset and angry and talk about what assholes they are. And then week two, you're back on LinkedIn, you're sending out emails, you're having coffees, you're meeting with people. I know a lot of very successful people who got stuck. They started a hedge fund. It didn't work out the way they'd hoped.
And they kind of just go sideways for five or 10 years because their life has been up into the right. And the first time they get beamed in the face, they have trouble getting up off the ground. So give yourself time to mourn. If you if you're someone dies, I don't know, mourn for a month, two months. I get it. and talk to people, be very open about it.
I find fitness and eating well are really important. But then if you aren't getting past it, maybe seek help, whether it's therapy or just being very open to people about how you're struggling with it and want, I mean, everybody loses somebody. Everybody gets fired. I think I've been fired from almost every job I've ever had.
So you gotta learn how to, you know, there's a lot of people who can help. whether it's friends who've been through the same thing, or also I love the notion of action absorbs anxiety. If you lose your job and you're upset about your career, start immediately trying to get coffees with people and start applying for and to a ton of other jobs.
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